Thanks, leaving SoCal for Bosque tomorrow AM
Sandhill Cranes and Bosque del Apache
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It's good to hear that more birds are flying into Bosque. At Ladd Gordon don't follow the crowd, drive around to find cranes that are nearer the road and take shots there. I had good luck with doing that to get in-flights shots, which are what I like to get. Also, at the pond at Ladd Gordon, the shots there just don't pan out well as the background is ugly and cluttered. If you can focus on just a crane or a small group of cranes it might work, but they do fly in late so it's high ISO shooting. I got some really nice shots of cranes in flight, single or small group, at Ladd Gordon as well as some of the wider type of shots and some nice shots of single cranes and geese in the field. And, there were some really great fly-offs that were fun to watch and listen to and provided some shots. I deleted every pond shot and I knew that I would when I took them but sometimes I think maybe the people standing around shooting know something I don't know so I go ahead and shoot even though I'm pretty sure it's not a good shot...I need to stop doing that and just trust myself! When I get everything downloaded I'll post some shots from both areas.
Posted some sandhill crane shots, "Sandhill cranes from New Mexico trip"
Just got here at about noon. Cloudy and very windy. There were a good number of cranes foraging in the fields along the North loop. Probably over a thousand. Got darker and windier, hoping for sun tomorrow.
Hope the weather improves for you but I think the storm we just had, California, is heading east.
It’s supposed to be mostly sunny and warm ish the next few days.
I'm on my way to Bosque tomorrow morning. So far I've gotten some good encouraging reports from folks that have recently been there.
Today great fly out from the north main road pond probably 3-400 cranes lot of BIF s. Cranes in fields on north loop over a thousand. Lots of Northern Harriers and we saw a group of 6 Javalina. 2000 Snow geese on north pond at noon. Limited internet but I’ll update more when I can.
Marsha Jane
Active member
Just returned on December 10. They are cleaning up and packing down some of the mud from torrential rains, and some parts of the park are closed as vehicles were getting stuck. The pond before the gate had lots to shoot, as others have mentioned, and Ladd S Gordon was good. Socorro is a Covid hot spot now, 2 of 5 in group came down with it. Socorro Springs restaurant offers decent dinner options. Glad I went, but the getting there from Toronto had its challenges.
About 1,000 cranes in the north entrance pond this morning. Great fly out shots with mountains in background. Great light today.
Ginnie and I found Bernardo more to our liking than Bosque. True, in the early AM the light is wrong but as soon as the sun get high enough the birds are properly lit and much closer than Bosque. In fact, as one drives along the road, birds in the corn are often startled and magically appear as they hop up and take off. This means that the driver must be ready to catch the shot while driving.
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